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News Breaking: Embracer games to break up into 3 companies

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3 names of these companies are Asmodee,Coffee Stain & Friends and Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends New
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    • The largest shareholder, Lars Wingefors AB...will remain a long-term, active, committed and supportive owner of all three entities.
    Click to expand...

    So nothing realistically will change and it's just a hack to balance the books. Embracer needs leadership change for anything to make a difference to the boots on the ground.
     
    AAA stuff becomes Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends? Trying to imagine something like Nintendo games being published under "Pals of the Mushroom Kingdom", or DC Comics rebranding as "Batman's Buddies".
     
    I said it before, but the whole Embracer situation is the biggest blunder in the history of videogames and deserves a full blown documentary/movie.

    -Embracer comes out of nowhere
    -Starts buying studios non stop
    -Everybody is wondering when will they stop the acquisitions
    -Embracer buys more and more
    -Turns out they were expecting a fund from Saudi Arabia
    -The deal fails
    -Turns out it was a bet. Everything was a bet
    -Embracer starts closing the companies they just had acquired and layoff thousands of people
    -Embracer breaks up in 3 different companies

    You cannot make this shit up.
     
    Y’all can jump through hoops, split into three companies, and change your name all you want to try to Neo-dodge all the (deserved) criticism before (probably) laying off a bunch of people (again). You’ll always be Embracer Group; you carry that because…

    IMG-2168.gif
     
    Enpsty said:
    I said it before, but the whole Embracer situation is the biggest blunder in the history of videogames and deserves a full blown documentary/movie.

    -Embracer comes out of nowhere
    -Starts buying studios non stop
    -Everybody is wondering when will they stop the acquisitions
    -Embracer buys more and more
    -Turns out they were expecting a fund from Saudi Arabia
    -The deal fails
    -Turns out it was a bet. Everything was a bet
    -Embracer starts closing the companies they just had acquired and layoff thousands of people
    -Embracer breaks up in 3 different companies

    You cannot make this shit up.
    Click to expand...
    What makes it funnier is embracer is just thq with a name change.

    Thq Nordic was the one that started all this

    The battle for bikini bottom and deblob devs

    That’s so just so funny to me for some reason.

    It’s like if marvellous Started buying capcom and Ubisoft out of the blue.
     
    ...I noticed a lack of mention of them buying up manga and anime divisions in this article... Wonder what's happening with that.
     
    Mendinso said:
    ...I noticed a lack of mention of them buying up manga and anime divisions in this article... Wonder what's happening with that.
    Click to expand...
    From the press release I understood it that Asmodee and Coffee Stain get split out as their own things, everything else is renamed under Middle-earth. So I would guess Plaion (who own Anime Ltd) and Dark Horse go under ME?
     
    100% there's going to be more layoffs and closures, so I may as well get this out of the way: As always, fuck Embracer.

    EDIT: I saw a claim elsewhere that Asmodee has been saddled with the majority of the debt, but I can't verify that for myself at the moment. But if it's true I am going to scream.
     
    Last edited:
    I simply can’t believe that, after what happened to THQ all the way back then, this is in some form repeating right here in front of our eyes. A bloated corp basically imploding. It’d be amazing if it wasn’t so sad and so many people had to suffer from higher-ups messing up big time (yet again).

    (Twist: I can totally believe it.)
     
    Enpsty said:
    I said it before, but the whole Embracer situation is the biggest blunder in the history of videogames and deserves a full blown documentary/movie.

    -Embracer comes out of nowhere
    -Starts buying studios non stop
    -Everybody is wondering when will they stop the acquisitions
    -Embracer buys more and more
    -Turns out they were expecting a fund from Saudi Arabia
    -The deal fails
    -Turns out it was a bet. Everything was a bet
    -Embracer starts closing the companies they just had acquired and layoff thousands of people
    -Embracer breaks up in 3 different companies

    You cannot make this shit up.
    Click to expand...

    Pretty much this. There was a time early on though when people were hailing Nordiq (back then) for "saving" many former THQ brands such as Darksiders.
    Crazy how many European developers and publishers they snatched up, only to run it all into a wall at full speed.

    Seems to me that due to their business model it will be hard for them or the newly split up companies to really turn around the ship when what they are really missing is any kind of substance and people that actually stay on long enough to care for all the properties and IPs they bought.
     
    JoshuaJSlone said:
    AAA stuff becomes Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends? Trying to imagine something like Nintendo games being published under "Pals of the Mushroom Kingdom", or DC Comics rebranding as "Batman's Buddies".
    Click to expand...
    This one isn't too weird. The rights for LOTR were originally owned by a company called Middle-Earth Enterprises. This is just splitting that division back out again into the original company.

    The rights to LOTR are quite the situation; they only own the rights to the Peter Jackson adaptations, not the novels. The Tolkien estate meanwhile really dislikes the Peter Jackson adaptations for being too action focused. If you start digging, you'll quickly find that there's 2 LOTR "canons", one only based on the Peter Jackson adaptations which excludes the Silmarillon (this is also why Rings of Power is such a mess - they literally wrote a prequel show without being allowed to use the "series bible" even though the Silmarillon is that) and one that does include it but deliberately avoids any and all references to the Peter Jackson adaptations.
     
    Bonejack said:
    This whole mismanagement needs to be a course in any management/business related study course.
    Click to expand...
    It's a great exhibit in why we need to eat the rich.

    Also a great example to point to when people say laughable shit like "Uhhh we wouldn't have video games without capitalism."
     
    So this was literally breaking news

    (These guys suck, they should be prosecuted, dissolved, and all property returned to original owners)
     
    IsisStormDragon said:
    100% there's going to be more layoffs and closures, so I may as well get this out of the way: As always, fuck Embracer.

    EDIT: I saw a claim elsewhere that Asmodee has been saddled with the majority of the debt, but I can't verify that for myself at the moment. But if it's true I am going to scream.
    Click to expand...
    If that's true, than the whole BG industry will be met with a fucking revolution soon.... Asmodee is huge and holds many of the major non-hasbro boardgaming IPs.
    I have many problems with the way Asmodee conducts their business, but if it Speedrun to it's death things will get weird on best case scenario...
    I hope every single studio and companies in embracer can get rid of these clowns and land on their feet when this shit hit the fan.


    Fuck capitalism.
     
    Last edited:
    “Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends”

    Weird way to describe the Valar, but hey, to each their own.

    Some Tolkien humor for your monday morning, folks!
     
    Found a source for the Asmodee getting all that red numbers, and it's kind of weird that they're the only one left without friends. So embracer split into:
    Coffee Stain & Friends
    Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends
    Asmodee & Debts

    boardgamewire.com

    Asmodee’s owner loads it up with €900m debt amid plan to spin off board game giant, CEO Carville to be replaced -

    Asmodee's troubled corporate owner Embracer Group has revealed plans to spin off the tabletop gaming giant, which will see the business take on the vast majority of its parent company's hefty debt pile.
    boardgamewire.com boardgamewire.com
     
    Green_Meeple said:
    Found a source for the Asmodee getting all that red numbers, and it's kind of weird that they're the only one left without friends. So embracer split into:
    Coffee Stain & Friends
    Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends
    Asmodee & Debts

    boardgamewire.com

    Asmodee’s owner loads it up with €900m debt amid plan to spin off board game giant, CEO Carville to be replaced -

    Asmodee's troubled corporate owner Embracer Group has revealed plans to spin off the tabletop gaming giant, which will see the business take on the vast majority of its parent company's hefty debt pile.
    boardgamewire.com boardgamewire.com
    Click to expand...

    I would not be surprised if Asmodee aka “doing Embracer for board games before it was cool” is next on the divestment block. Saddling them with the debt I think makes that a harder task but it’s one of the few holdings that doesn’t quite fit with the rest.
     
    Enpsty said:
    I said it before, but the whole Embracer situation is the biggest blunder in the history of videogames and deserves a full blown documentary/movie.

    -Embracer comes out of nowhere
    -Starts buying studios non stop
    -Everybody is wondering when will they stop the acquisitions
    -Embracer buys more and more
    -Turns out they were expecting a fund from Saudi Arabia
    -The deal fails
    -Turns out it was a bet. Everything was a bet
    -Embracer starts closing the companies they just had acquired and layoff thousands of people
    -Embracer breaks up in 3 different companies

    You cannot make this shit up.
    Click to expand...

    CAPITALISM : a parody
     
    shoptroll said:
    I would not be surprised if Asmodee aka “doing Embracer for board games before it was cool” is next on the divestment block. Saddling them with the debt I think makes that a harder task but it’s one of the few holdings that doesn’t quite fit with the rest.
    Click to expand...
    If there's one thing I'd love is Asmodee getting out of this mess (actually I'd prefer if it separated itself in many healthy games publishers than being this giant conglomerate with industry shaping power, but I don't think this will happen too soon).
     
    Enpsty said:
    I said it before, but the whole Embracer situation is the biggest blunder in the history of videogames and deserves a full blown documentary/movie.

    -Embracer comes out of nowhere
    -Starts buying studios non stop
    -Everybody is wondering when will they stop the acquisitions
    -Embracer buys more and more
    -Turns out they were expecting a fund from Saudi Arabia
    -The deal fails
    -Turns out it was a bet. Everything was a bet
    -Embracer starts closing the companies they just had acquired and layoff thousands of people
    -Embracer breaks up in 3 different companies

    You cannot make this shit up.
    Click to expand...
    I want to see this doc so bad. If nothing else I hope the gaming historian gives it a 90 minute treatment someday
     
    Djehuty said:
    What makes it funnier is embracer is just thq with a name change.

    Thq Nordic was the one that started all this

    The battle for bikini bottom and deblob devs

    That’s so just so funny to me for some reason.

    It’s like if marvellous Started buying capcom and Ubisoft out of the blue.
    Click to expand...
    Actually, if we really wanna go down the rabbit hole, it gets worse.

    This ain't THQ with a name change. Nordic Games simply purchased the THQ name and library. What was Nordic Games known for before this? Publishing We Sing, a clone of the SingStar games for Wii. And this was after years of the business being a used game's store, then going into bankruptcy in the early 2000s, then reforming as a company to resell new video games. Even in its earliest days, what we now call Embracer Group was only really known for buying other games and selling them, and that's all the business did - absorb other companies and sell their games under their own brand.

    To re-approach the analogy, imagine if GameStop went out of business, then the CEO took the name and made a smaller company for a few years, then published a casual dancing game that blew up on the Switch, then purchased Marvellous and renamed themselves Marvellous GameStop, then bought a bunch of big AAA games, and now is splitting up the companies into such entities as "Street Fighter & Friends".

    Absolutely shameful company.
     
    I’m never gonna get over the names.

    Can’t wait for Nintendo to open samus and her pals

    The studio to work on the sequel to other M
     
    Green_Meeple said:
    If there's one thing I'd love is Asmodee getting out of this mess (actually I'd prefer if it separated itself in many healthy games publishers than being this giant conglomerate with industry shaping power, but I don't think this will happen too soon).
    Click to expand...
    It honestly looks like there might be a risk of Asmodee going under. In order to finance the restructuring, Embracer took out close to a billion dollar loan that needs to be repaid in 18 months. And then left Asmodee holding the bag.

    And that debt is about 4 years of profits for Asmodee apparently. Asmodee is basically their own entity again, and was clearly the best performing part of Embracer, but it's pretty clear they're going to have lenders looking for their money in 18 months, which they won't have. So who knows what happens at that point, maybe they sell off some studios or IP? Hasbro must be overjoyed right now.

    boardgamegeek.com

    Asmodee's Parent Company Embracer Group Will Split into Three Companies | BoardGameGeek News

    boardgamegeek.com boardgamegeek.com

    EDIT: Also, Asmodee is in a good position to basically shed property and studios easily anyways. Their MO seems to be mostly to have their publishing companies operating as LLCs for a couple of product lines and they just make new ones as needed. Which is why there's been weird things like a lot of former Fantasy Flight products shifting around to various other companies while they spun up Sandcastle Games just to publish Res Arcana.
     
    Last edited:
    shoptroll said:
    It honestly looks like there might be a risk of Asmodee going under. In order to finance the restructuring, Embracer took out close to a billion dollar loan that needs to be repaid in 18 months. And then left Asmodee holding the bag.

    And that debt is about 4 years of profits for Asmodee apparently. Asmodee is basically their own entity again, and was clearly the best performing part of Embracer, but it's pretty clear they're going to have lenders looking for their money in 18 months, which they won't have. So who knows what happens at that point, maybe they sell off some studios or IP? Hasbro must be overjoyed right now.

    boardgamegeek.com

    Asmodee's Parent Company Embracer Group Will Split into Three Companies | BoardGameGeek News

    boardgamegeek.com boardgamegeek.com

    EDIT: Also, Asmodee is in a good position to basically shed property and studios easily anyways. Their MO seems to be mostly to have their publishing companies operating as LLCs for a couple of product lines and they just make new ones as needed. Which is why there's been weird things like a lot of former Fantasy Flight products shifting around to various other companies while they spun up Sandcastle Games just to publish Res Arcana.
    Click to expand...
    Wel... Hoping for the better turn out of these events, specially for the workers.
    It's kind of "weird" to think that in amidst of this megalomaniac gaming monster, the healthiest was the one making cardboard, wood and plastic games.
     
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